NYT Star Reporter Dexter Filkins Leaves For The New Yorker

The NYO
broke the news that Dexter Filkins, the
Times star war correspondent for the past decade is
departing for the New Yorker.

That he is leaving for the New Yorker is perhaps less
surprising to those who have read Filkin's book The Forever War,
which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008, or
followed his various book reviews in other publications.

It goes without saying, New Yorker readers will be the luckier
for the move. Also, one suspects after more than a decade
in war zones Filkins might be looking for an alternative.

According to John Koblin, Filkins notified the
Times today.

“I think Dexter Filkins has long proved himself as one of the
great war correspondents and foreign correspondents not only of
his generation but ever,” said Remnick...The plan here is to send
Dexter to a wide variety of foreign stories that we will work out
mutually,” he said. “I’m sure that he will get his fill of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but I’d also be very surprised if he
didn’t travel far and wide—whether that’s the Middle East or
Africa or India.”

The NYT didn't let go of him easily.

The Filkins negotiation has lasted months, including a moment two
months ago when Keller and Times foreign editor Susan Chira tried
to convince Filkins in person in Afghanistan to stay at the paper
(Keller and Chira were on a previously scheduled trip). Times
Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren had tried to set up opportunities
for Filkins to write for the magazine. Evidently, it wasn’t
enough.